Knicks Overcome by the Heat

A Big Halftime Lead Disintegrates as LeBron James Stops Anthony's Run; 14 Straight Wins for Miami

ENLARGE

Carmelo Anthony (right) scored 24 first-half points to put the Knicks ahead, but LeBron James and the Heat held him to eight in the second half.
Associated Press

By

Chris Herring

Updated March 3, 2013 10:11 p.m. ET

Ever since the beginning of the season, when the Knicks came bolting out of the same gates that the Miami Heat stumbled over, the question has loomed: Does Miami have another, higher gear?

The answer, both over the past month and especially on Sunday—when the Heat erased a 16-point deficit to beat the Knicks 99-93 at Madison Square Garden—appears to be a resounding yes.

Miami's win was a franchise-record-tying 14th straight victory and snapped the Knicks' three-game win streak. Reigning MVP LeBron James (29 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists) helped Miami outscore the Knicks 54-34 in the game's second half. With about 30 seconds left in the game, he stepped in front of a J.R. Smith pass intended for Carmelo Anthony, turning the mistake into a breakaway dunk and the six-point margin by which his team would go on to win.

James's defensive efforts played a key role, too. The Knicks owned a 59-45 lead at the half—an advantage they held largely because of a monster, 24-point effort (6-for-8 from the floor) from Anthony to that point. But the Knicks' star forward logged only eight points (3-for-11 shooting) after the break, when James took responsibility for guarding him.

Even if Anthony was struggling, though, the Knicks had some questionable decision-making in the late stages. From the 3:45 mark in the fourth quarter, when they were down four, 91-87, to the final minute, when Smith threw that ill-fated pass to James, Anthony didn't touch the ball on offense. The Knicks had four possessions over that span.

"Our shot selection was bad coming down the stretch," said Knicks coach Mike Woodson. In particular, he mentioned Smith, who took a game-high 14 3-point attempts, making just three of them.

The game started out much like the last two between the teams: A runaway in the Knicks' (35-21) favor. The Knicks and Heat basically played to a near draw in the opening quarter, with Miami leading 23-22. But the Knicks—specifically, the previously slumping Jason Kidd (4-for-5 from three)—took over in the second, hitting five triples. The 15 points they generated from those shots were the margin in the second quarter, and the Knicks took what seemed like a comfortable lead into the break. It was arguably the team's best half of basketball in almost two months.

But the advantage didn't sit well with the Heat, who were still stewing over the two embarrassing, 20-point losses they'd suffered to the Knicks earlier in the season.

"You never want to lose to a team each time you play them. You don't want them to have that sort of confidence. We might have to play them again [in the postseason]," said Dwyane Wade (20 points, eight rebounds, eight assists), who said he viewed the matchup as a statement game.

As such, the Heat found their higher gear in the third. Miami shot 48% from the floor and held the Knicks to 27% shooting in the same span, inducing eight Knick misses in their first nine shots to start the half.

The Garden went silent for a brief moment during the quarter, with just under eight minutes left, when James leapt to catch an alley-oop attempt but missed and came down awkwardly on his left leg.

He allayed any concern almost immediately after, though, when he calmly hit a contested 19-foot jumpshot from the top of the key and helped his team close its deficit to four, 77-73 by quarter's end. "You ever seen him get hurt? He never gets hurt. We weren't buying that," said Anthony, who had been treated for a sore knee himself earlier in the game.

The fourth quarter saw three ties and three lead changes. The Knicks hung in, but their inability to rebound Miami's misfires hurt them tremendously down the stretch. The Heat got three second-chance baskets—including a game-tying, 25-foot triple and then a tip-in from James—in the final eight minutes that helped seal it.

"Our guys showed some mental toughness and resolve in the second half," Miami coach Erik Spoelstra said. "We got caught up in a lot of things that we couldn't control in the first half, when we were sloppy, very inefficient and had careless turnovers that they scored on. In the second half, we just focused on playing our game and try to dig back into it."

And perhaps that was the difference. The Heat, realizing they needed more, had the ability to turn things up a notch when it mattered most. The jury is still out on whether the Knicks can do the same.

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